[Video] Kato ProducerGrind Interview (Talks Making $30K Per Month Selling Beats, Producer Marketing, Facebook Ads + More)

Kato stopped by the office for a Producergrind Podcast episode where we talked a lot about the business side of making beats. Kato shared a lot of knowledge about selling beats online and the marketing strategies that go into running a successful online beat store. He shared that he spends about $1000 per month on facebook ads but he makes about $30,000 per month. It seems that building your brand and having a fan base has been key for his success along with having big placements. Of course we talk music production and why Kato uses Propellerhead Reason instead of FL Studio. We also get into LoFi and Kato on The Tracks new LoFI album “Wake Up Cake Up.” He talks about how he is trying to get one of his songs on a major loFi playlist in hopes that it will bring exposure to the rest of his LoFi catalog which means more producer income. There is a crazy amount of producer advice in this episode so enjoy.

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1:15 Kato on The Track Biography/Come Up Story
3:11 Kato didn’t like school and he felt pressure to go to college
4:53 College is as much about who you meet as it is about what you learn
5:36 Switching from FL Studio to Reason
6:24 How Kato built up his social media following
7:35 Spending $1000 a month on Facebook ads
8:15 Being an “online” producer after in-person situations weren’t getting him where he wanted to be
10:30 Top 3 tips for spending money on promotions and ads
11:50 If you don’t have an online audience, the music has to be amazing, and even then it might not be enough
12:33 Selling beats online is mostly about marketing & branding
13:51 Giving things away for free and why
14:48 Building an audience online is about engagement – Attention is a commodity
15:24 Be your authentic self
15:49 How Kato stands out from other producers
16:29 So many profitable independent artists need beats but people keep going after the same artists
18:26 How he linked with Futuristic
19:44 What was it like at Funk Volume?
22:05 You don’t always need a team, you might just need to put in more work
23:30 Learning the music business with Music Entrepreneur Club
25:01 It took Kato 6-7 years to lay his career foundation
25:45 Educating himself on different streams of music revenue instead of being solely focused on placements
26:57 Being a producer means you have to develop yourself into an entrepreneur
28:23 You can’t be part time, you have to do music full time
29:00 Partnership with DJ Pain 1 and how Beat Club became Music Entrepreneur Club
30:22 How his ethnicity is relevant to his music career
31:40 Korean background opened doors to other genres, specifically K-Pop
33:19 Overrated/Underrated
-Email Blasts
-Lebron to the Lakers
-Having a team
-Type Beats (as a Marketing tool)
-Starting Beat Stores in 2018
39:58 Sweat equity and monetary investments in your independent music career
40:48 Redirecting people to other opportunities whose music may not be ready yet
41:42 Nobody owes you anything and you have to be able to take constructive feedback
43:32 Kato can guide people but he won’t do the work for you
44:39 Have grace and be ok with someone telling you “no”
46:12 Signs of people who might be built for this – positivity and optimism, willingness to listen and learn
47:19 Stopped using Vlogs as much and converting to more short form content
48:10 IGTV as an emerging platform
50:50 Why did Kato start his Youtube Channel?
51:37 The rapping platform TeamBackpack.net
53:22 The Umm Factor – Everything you know about selling beats online and marketing and branding yourself online
54:39 Kato once made $30,000 in a month selling beats online
55:14 Distribute your audience among the different platforms
55:36 What is Kato’s mindset when creating an ad online?
56:55 One Week Notice mixtape with BeatStars
57:11 Wake Up Cake Up Lofi instrumental album on all platforms
59:20 Graphic designer from Italy did the Wake Up Cake Up cover
59:58 Kato puts all music on all platforms when he releases
1:00:39 Rappers purchased beats because they heard the instrumental album
1:01:36 Beat Club/Music Entrepreneur Club format and what you can learn from them
1:03:22 Kato’s song “Money Bag” with Jarren Benton which had similarities to Cardi B’s song “Money Bag”
1:04:47 Jarren Benton & Kato dropping new album Yuck Fou on RocNation July 27
1:05:22 What’s next in 2018 for Kato on The Track

Hosted By
@ceodylan
@theletterlbeats
@carrington_hill
@producergrind

Special Guest
@katoproducer

Directed by
@cookitupkayo

#ProducergrindPodcast